Hip hop newcomer from the east coast, Mason, has released his latest and greatest collection of tracks, a long-playing album appropriately dubbed “The Dark Side.” The record consists of 18 original tracks for a combined listening time of just under an hour, making his debut release both a comprehensive and ambitious one. Mason's overall tone for this flagship LP is one of imminent victory, and indeed the talent showcased here is an abundant explosion of youth, brains, and impetuous assertion of character.

This ought not to surprise Mason's fans, who know and love him in part for his unwaveringly skyward course. “The way I'm heading only leads to the top,” Mason says. Another of his lyrics explains his pointed ambition thus: “I'd rather drown tryin' than be on this side of the island.”

The sound of Mason's “The Dark Side” is a classic, old-school, urban overture, the loops of which at times include violently charged electric guitars or a chamber orchestra of violins, always to a heavy-hitting back beat that delivers enough punch to serve as a main attraction, but also leaves room enough for Mason to deliver his jabs between thumps.

Mason has performed at shows featuring artists such as Lupe Fiasco and Cypress Hill, as well as at festivals (South-by-Southwest, 2012 perhaps being most notable). His contract with Doghouse Records landed him the job of representing them as their first signed hip hop artist. Studying as a psychology major in the Philadelphia suburbs, he started writing rock songs in his dormitory while keeping an eye on his laundry. “The Dark Side” stands as his official declaration and return to the hip hop genre from rock music.

Still, it isn't all fun and games for him. Mason has a dark side, himself, that causes him to address the cold and brutal aspect of planet Earth. “I can't get away from the ghosts,” he spits. “They want me to join 'em... You gotta see 'em to destroy 'em.”

Mason is more than capable of pointing such specters out, too. He has no trouble seeing in the dark. Fans can hear his phantoms firsthand beginning 15 January 2012.

-S. McCauley
Staff Press Release Writer
MondoTunes

The LP “The Dark Side” is distributed globally by MondoTunes (www.MondoTunes.com) and is available at iTunes for convenient purchase and download

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